


Nocturnal Hero.

by orphan_account



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Coping, F/M, Hopeful Ending, One Shot, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-17
Updated: 2013-12-17
Packaged: 2018-01-05 00:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1087345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle spends a lot of her time asleep, in and out of nightmares that remind her of the lover she lost.  But one particular dream gives her hope, and it resurrects her memories of him.  (One Shot, spoilers up to 3x11.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nocturnal Hero.

**Author's Note:**

> This is how I cope with that last episode.

She had known Rumpelstiltskin to be many men- a impish creature with a dark soul who could not grant himself hope; a Dark One with allegiance to his deepest thirsts for blood; an affluent and feared man of many suits and monetary weapons. And then there was the man who had loved her, who had steeled his selfish will to survive in order to protect the people he lived for.

And so, when she dreams, her brain doesn’t know which man to remember. The one who threw her in a cage, or the one who sacrificed everything for his family?

He saved their lives- _her_ life. But he broke her in the process.

Now Belle sleeps more than she does anything else. There are curses, albeit gifts, in this land that she can cast over her heavy eyes, which prevent her from seeing light for days. This kingdom was her home, but she finds no comfort here. It’s in her sleep that she feels safe.

But even her dreams do not shroud her from the truth. She sees him die, again and again, just without the power of begging him to stay. She watches him being forcefully ripped from her life, dissolving with her future, into a pile of dust that she doesn’t even get to run through her fingers. His body disappears, and so with it go all of his evolutions into a man who could love her. He was ready to be a hero. 

She will never be ready.

-

The moon is pale, making her bedroom dark blue, tranquil, and quiet for slumber. But tonight, the wind surrounds her. She hears a quiet voice, swirling around her ear.

 _Come to me,_ he whispers, his breath warm on her neck. 

She stirs in her bed. She doesn’t want to go to him. Doesn’t want to see him die again.

But then a bright light breaks through her eyelids. She thinks she’s awakening, but when she tries to move, everything feels different. She looks down at her arms, and they’re glowing like the Gods’ flesh, shimmering in the sunlight, making her look alive again.

Then Belle looks up. And he’s there.

There’s cloth that looks like Roman ribbon wrapped around his torso. His body looks like a marble statue, but his movements are fluid, his muscles oiled and tanned, the cuff still clamped around his wrist like a trophy. She takes one look into his eyes and he smiles. His head tilts to the side, and then she’s running at him, captivated by the light glowing all around him.

“Rumpel,” she breathes into his neck, feeling his arms wrap around her and clutch her tight. Tears catch in the corner of her eyelids and she buries them into his collarbone, taking in sharp breaths of disbelief. “But you’re gone. You were gone.”

Rumpelstiltskin, holding Belle’s shoulders in his hands, steps back to look at her. Inexorable sorrow creases his face, and she sees the wrinkles in his hero-like body, age and weariness tugging at the corners of his skin. But he smiles. He squeezes her and smiles.

“I’m gone now, Belle,” he murmurs, the corner of his mouth turning up with a challenging grin. “But I’ll be back for you, love. We’ll be together sure enough.” He looks down as if he wants to speak more, but instead keeps his lips tight, eyes focused on her.

Belle shakily draws and breath and attempts to answer, her lips trembling and making her words uneasy. “But you said that villains don’t get happy endings.” She wants to believe, but she knows too much of grief to believe in divine miracles.

Just as she thinks he’s going to surrender, he grins again, his teeth full of promise.

“Ah, yes,” he speaks tauntingly, lifting a finger into the air. “But I am not a villain anymore.”

As they search each others' eyes, Belle wants to stay. She wants to remain here, clouded in dreams of him, but the world around her is fading. Rumpelstiltskin grabs her again, jolting her with his intensity.

“Do great things,” he urges, eyes full of fire. “Wait for me and live your life, and I will return to share it with you.”

He is slipping away from her, fading away into the dissolving dream. But his smile, full of love and hope, remains burned into her memory. She wakes into the dark room. And though it’s late and cold, she gets up. Because there’s too much to do to wait any longer.


End file.
